Kworld Trend / Learnania africa scam story
Is Learnania africa scam
Scamadviser is an automated algorithm to check if a website is legit scam . The review of learnania.com has been based on an analysis of 40 facts found online in public sources. Sources we use are if the website is listed on phishing and spam sites, if it serves malware, the country the company is based, the reviews found on other sites, and many other facts.
The website looks safe to use. However as the analysis of the website is done automatically, we always recommend you do your own checking as well to make sure the website is safe to use.
Positive highlights
- People are giving this website positive reviews
- We found a valid SSL certificate
- DNSFilter labels this site as safe
- Checked for malware and phishing by Flashstart
Negative highlights
- The Tranco rank (how much traffic) is rather low
- The registrar of this website is popular amongst scammers
- The age of this site is (very) young.
How the Learnarnia Scam Works
- The learnania company post a lot of job vacancies online inviting prospective job seekers to apply for its customer service roles. When a job seeker applies, he gets a mail for an online based test/exam from Learnania.
- The Online test is usually time based around 30 mins, and the questions are usually basic customer satisfaction questions that anyone can answer.
- When the job seeker completes the tests and submits, a success mail is usually sent to the job seekers email address with a link to an onboarding page. The success mail is shown in below image.
- When a user clicks on the onboarding link, he is asked to upload a police clearance certificate. And then the site recommends another website for the job seeker to pay 25,000naira so as to get the Police clearance certificate.
- The website is basically tricking people to part with 25,000 naira to get a police clearance certificate. Since the same certificate is usually gotten at higher price from Nigerian police stations (around 60,000naira). The job seeker would try to get it from the recommended site for just 25,000naira and that way lose his money to this fraudulent scheme.
Other Reasons To Believe Learnania Is a Scam
Almost everyone who applied for the customer service position received an acceptance email, which seems suspicious considering the number of customer service representatives an edtech startup would actually require.
Learnania directs prospective job seekers to obtain Police clearance certificate from a website called Catios Ventures (Catios.com).
Catios Ventures, recently registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on June 2, 2023, which was just about a month ago. It raises questions about how a company that is relatively new and unknown in Nigeria has become widely recognized as the top recommendation for a pan-African edtech startup.
Catios Ventures requests payment upfront without asking for personal information or required documents. They claim to offer police clearance certificates at a significantly lower price and provide free delivery.
Catios ventures claim to be located at 38, Aminu Kano crescent, Wuse, Abuja. But a check on google map shows no such company exists in that address.
Learnania africa scam story
About two weeks ago, various posts started making the rounds that an African Edtech startup, Learnania, was hiring.
After thorough examination, I have come up with 10 reasons why Learnania is more likely to be a fraudulent scheme.
1. Virtually Everyone Who Applied Got The Job.
After interacting with several people on LinkedIn and Nairaland, I realized that, save a handful of people, everyone got a message that they had been accepted for the position they applied for.
I have seen close to thirty people who got an email that they had been chosen for the content creator position, and this is within Nigeria alone. That leaves one wondering how many content creators an Edtech startup will be needing.
2. A Previous Report Of Scam
While researching thoroughly, I found an article that dates back to June 2023, this was before Learnania sent out their employment mail.
The article details the step-by-step process of how Learnania scams people, and how they have been doing it for long.
Lo and behold, the exact steps detailed in the article – from the message to the onboarding page – reappared on July 3 when Learnania claimed to send out employment emails to people.
Here is a link to to the article that detailed their scam process even before the sent out the recent employment emails yesterday.
3. Directing “Employees” To a Website To Pay 25k (Naira)
I learnt that in a supposed onboarding page for their new “employees”, Learnania made it clear the employees had to submit a police clearance certificate.
So how’s that fraudulent?
They tactfully gave people the choice to either go to their local police stations to obtain the documents and submit within 2 weeks (Note this) or… they can use a website where they pay 25k and the website processes their police clearance documents for them and delivers it to them in their apartment.
Giving the employees an option made the legitimacy more believable, but it is, in fact, proof of their ingenuinty at scamming.
How?
The website claims to obtain the certificate for 25k, while it is often gotten for around 40k at the police station. The site also promises to deliver within 7 days (which will meet up with the deadline) but if you want it at the police station within that short period, you are required to pay another sum of money.
Of course, they know everyone would resort to paying 25k without even leaving their houses.
Such an ingenious way to scam.
4. The 25K Website
Now to some interesting facts about Catios.com, the website Learnania directed people to to obtain their Police clearance certificate.
A. Catios claims to be a company that helps with CAC registration and police clearance certificates, but after a check on the CAC website, I realized Catios Ventures only got registered by the CAC on June 2, 2023, just about a month ago.
A company that just registered itself one month ago, and is not known by a single person Nigeria a priori, how does it become so widely known that it is the first recommendation of a pan-African edtech startup?
B. The company address shows it to be situated at 38, Aminu Kano crescent, Wuse, Abuja. But a check on Google map, as well as testimonies from those in the area showed that the address is that of a plaza, DCL plaza, and it has nothing to do with Certifos.
C. The company has a system that requests for money even before requesting for your name, or for any necessary documents to process your clearance certificate.
D. The company claims to help get the police clearance certificate for 25k, at least 15k less than you would obtain it at a police station, and deliever for free. Learnania africa scam story
Something seems fishy – even meaty.
5. Their Social Media Presence Dissapeared
Before July 3, 2023, Learnania had several posts available on their social media handles, dating back to as far as two months ago. However, on the eve of their announcement of onbaording new employees, all their posts and supposed workers dissapeared. (Note that they claimed this was due to a phishing attack on their accounts)
Also, their Linkedn profile, as at the time of writing this, shows four employees. Three of them have private profiles, so neither their names nor positions could be verified. The only one who did not have a private profile, only added Learnania on July 3, 2023. The same day they sent out their fraudulent message.
6. Their Required Qualifications
The company’s required qualifications are extremely low for African standards. We are known for placing too much value on educational certificates, so lowering that barrier so much seemed suspicious, even if it wasn’t strong enough a nail to crucify them with, it was still something to hold on to, perharps if you find a weaker bone.
7. No Way Of Contacting Them
Sit for a second and think. If someone pays 25k to the supposed website, how do I contact them if they go incommunicado?
There is no way! We do not know their CEO or any of their employees, their office can not be verified, their social media accounts hsve been supposedly hacked. Learnania africa scam story
8. No Clear Definition Of Their Services
Another cause for suspicion is that the “company” does not seem so sure about what services they are offering – and well, since a lot of us are that way with our skills too, I guess that’s forgivable?
No, not for a company that claims it wants to rewrite African history on one page, then later claims it wants to connect tutors to students in a second page, and then claims to have created an AI chatbot to discuss any topics on another page.
If you are not yet convinced that even if they are legitimate, they are confused, then hear this: on their onbaording page, they claim that several companies are already scheduling to outsource their customer support, staff training and content creation needs to Learnania. (Are you kidding me?)
How did Learnania suddenly become a freelance website wherr companies outsource customer support and content creation needs?
What exactly are you doing? Are you a freelance website that outsources work like AmpiFire, or a tutor-student website like LiveXP, or an AI company like OpenAI? Or… a team of lowlife scammers?
9. None Of Their Services Is Up Yet.
Another red flag is that none of the supposed services advertised on their website is up and running yet.
If you try to access any of the services, they simply ssk for your email address and tell you to join the waitlist. Dubiously, their waitlist does not seem to have increasd since over 2 months. Learnania africa scam story
10. Deception
They deceived a lot of gullible job seekers by mixing some fairly believable information with a lot of hoax.
For example, they didn’t compel the “employees” to pay for the Police clearnace report, instead they made it a lot cheaper so you’d be forced to pay on that site.
2. They offered two website options for the payment, so it would sound more believable. But they ensured the second website was not working.
3. They kept repeating that they do not ask for any form of payment to employ people.
This is simply to deceive gullible job seekers.
Summary: I have written this to call the attention of desperate job seekers not ro fall for this scam, and to take their time to research properly.
And also, to call the attention of necessary authorities to this scheme so that they would be called to order. Apparently, they have been existing for long and scamming some of the most vulnerable sets of people around the country – job seekers.
